Fixing a Color Photo
Removing grunge from a color photo with our method requires exactly the same steps as for a b&w picture.
The example on the left has fewer obvious speckles and scratches than the example on Page 1 of this tutorial, but quite a few can be seen on the woman's hair and around her head.
We set our method and the "Dust & Scratches" filter to produce images that were as similar as possible in quality.
In particular, we did not want to reduce the grain, which can happen easily if the threshold in the "Dust & Scratches" filter is set too low.
Although the results are pretty close, the "Dust & Scratches" caused loss of detail and artifacts that will be highlighted in the images below.
Final result of the "Dust & Scratches" filter.
Final result of our method.
Close-up of the image obtained using the "Dust & Scratches" filter.
The red squares emphasize areas with loss of detail or unwanted artifacts. Reduced sharpness of the windows of the background building is particularly noticeable.
Close-up of the image retouched using our method.
No loss of detail or artifacts in the marked areas.
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